Chicago cop is injured after being dragged by a car during a hit and run just miles from where officer Ella French was killed
A Chicago police officer has been seriously injured after being hit by a driver who reversed at him during a traffic stop, and dragged along the street just miles away from where fellow officer Ella French was killed last week.
Chicago Police officers were conducting a traffic stop when the the driver of a black Chevy Impala suddenly backed up, dragging one of the cops and pinning his body against a viaduct, the Chicago Police Department said.
The officer discharged his weapon and then hobbled to a nearby SUV with the help of his fellow officers. The driver fled while officers tended to the injured cop.
The officer was reported as seriously wounded and taken to a nearby hospital.
Police are investigating a hit-and-run accident that left an officer seriously injured after a car hit, dragged and pinned him against a viaduct on Friday
The incident occurred in Chicago's South Street, with the suspect fleeing the scene
A witness told ABC 7, that the fleeing driver was dangling from his car as he made his getaway.
'He actually swerved into my lane, hit my car and continued. Flew around the corner like a bat out of hell,' Teccara Murphy said.
Police found the car not far from the crash site. The incident remains under investigation.
There have been no arrests made yet in connection to the incident.
The hit-and-run occurred near where French was shot and killed, and her partner left badly injured, during another traffic stop last on August 7.
French's death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since 2018 and the first female officer fatally shot on the job in 33 years.
She was one of 10 people killed and 64 wounded by gun violence throughout the city last weekend as the city continues to suffer from high crime rates.
Chicago Police Officer Ella French, pictured, was shot dead last Saturday in the line of duty
The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over
Two brothers - Emonte Morgan, 21, and his brother Eric, 22, have been arrested and charged for French's death, but an ABC 7 report found that Emonte was actually supposed to be behind bars that day.
Emonte has been connected to a hit-and-run case from April in which a walker was struck in a crosswalk and sent flying against a stop sign.
According to ABC 7, Morgan didn't stop driving until he struck a parked car nearly a mile and a half away.
He was freed on a personal recognizance bond in the wake of the hit and run - despite being on probation for a 2019 robbery conviction at the time.
Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot referred to slain police officer Ella French as 'Ella Fitzgerald' and 'Ella Franks', respectively
The new information put Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot under fresh scrutiny. Chicago police union boss John Catanzara told Fox News that Lightfoot had to shoulder some of the blame for French's death due to the city's soft stance on crime.
Lightfoot had also been criticized for incorrectly referring to French as 'Ella Franks' and siding with First Deputy Police Supt. Eric Carter in dismissing a traditional bagpipe service for French outside the medical examiner's office.
Carter allegedly said 'We don't have 20 minutes for this s**t.'
Data from August showed murders in the city were nearly the same as the number reported last year, but shootings increased by 15% and the number of people shot in the city rose by nearly 10 per cent year-over-year.
Chicago Police Department said that there were 105 homicides recorded in the month of July.
That is down slightly from last summer, when 107 people were killed in July, but up significantly over 2019, when 44 murders were recorded - representing a 139 per cent increase in monthly homicides within the last two years.
Police say that 471 homicides have been recorded so far in 2021, compared to 462 during the eight months of 2020.
Once again, both numbers are significantly higher than those recorded in 2019, when 290 people were killed in the first seven months of the year, representing a 53.4% increase.